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the ucsc review
November 1976
IN THIS ISSUE:
What Makes Biological Clocks Tick
The Bicentennial Birds
International Roster of Talks
Break from Traditional
Housing Seen at Oakes
For the first time since Oakes College
opened in temporary facilities four
years ago, its faculty, students, and
staff have a home to call their own this
fall—an $8.8 million complex designed
by McCue Boone Tomsick.
The San Francisco architects worked
out preliminary ideas for the College with
a faculty-student Programming Committee
in the spring of 1970. The result is an
innovative academic-residential facility
that is already being hailed as "the trend
of the future."
"We were particularly fortunate in
being able to draw on the experiences of
UCSC's six colleges already built to help
us achieve our objectives in innovative
ways," says Provost J. Herman Blake.
"Strongly-expressed student preferences
for community and self-sufficiency and
Oakes' liberal arts program (combined
with its particular academic interests in
cultural pluralism in America and in the
natural sciences) were principal factors
involved in the design process."
Handsomely sheathed in fire-resistant
cedar shake shingles—enough to cover two
and one-half football fields—Oakes is
located on the west side of the campus on
an oak-studded site with a spectacular
view of Monterey Bay.
The complex has four major components. Two of them, the academic building
and the residential "neighborhoods," are
now in use; the other two, a student commons/tutorial-research center and Oakes
College House are scheduled for completion next year.
APARTMENT LIVING
A major feature of the College is its
break from traditional student housing.
Gone is the dorm room with bath down
the hall and a central dining facility. At
Oakes, students live in apartments and do
their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning.
About half of Oakes' 650 students will
live in the College's 65 apartments. Each
unit accommodates five students. Floor
plans include a living room with dining
room extension, a kitchen, two baths, and
either three single and one double or two
double and one single bedrooms.
The apartments are carpeted and furnished with beds, desks, chairs, tables,
lamps, a refrigerator, a stove, and
draperies. Students provide their own
linens, dishes, cooking utensils, and tableware. Room fees are $965 per year per
student, approximately $110 per month.
"As with any new housing, there are
bugs to be worked out," says Doug
Treado, Oakes' housing and student activities coordinator, "but the apartments
seem to be extremely well received by
students. Residents particularly appreciate
how well sound-proofed the units are,"
he says.
"The apartments are really quiet,"
confirms Oakes freshman Anna Kertulla,
a biology major from Alaska. "With the
door to my room closed, I don't hear a
sound from any other part of the
apartment."
According to UCSC Project Architect
Chuck Kahrs, sound-proofing was a major
structural concern in the design and
construction of Oakes.
---
[Photographs] Above, a residential "neighborhood" is seen in the two-story
and three-story units connected
by open stairways and walkways; the sundeck is the roof
of a laundry service module.
Above right, a student studies
in the living room of her
furnished apartment-with-a-
view (Photo by Peter Xiques). College Provost J. Herman
Blake, shown at right, lectures
in his class, "Introduction to
Sociology," in Oakes' 114-seat
lecture hall.
---
In another aspect of life in the Oakes
neighborhood, Treado is working with
student committees to organize a College
garden project and form an Oakes food
co-op for bulk purchase of staples. The
co-op is scheduled to be in operation in
early October.
Both proposals will undoubtedly be
met with enthusiasm by residents such as
freshman Dave Metzger, from Thousand
Oaks. "One of my roommates is a vegetarian, another opts for organic foods,
and the rest of us eat almost anything, so
we each end up making frequent, time-
consuming trips to town to buy our own
food," he says.
All kitchen refuse from the apartments
is re-cycled, according to Treado. Bottles
and tin cans go to local re-cycling centers.
Bio-degradable garbage is relegated to
compost heaps at the UCSC Farm and
Garden Project.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCEPT
Stemming from recommendations of
the faculty-student Programming Committee, architects McCue Boone Tomsick
developed the residential units into a
neighborhood concept within the College
community. There are twelve "neighborhoods," each composed of five apartments in two- and three-story units,
with open stairways and walkways to
promote recognition and communication
among residents. Several neighborhoods
are organized around a common, one-
story service module, which includes
coin-operated laundromats and dryers,
with a sun deck roof.
A continuous redwood bench, running
alongside a winding path, connects the
apartment units to one another, furthering the neighborhood concept.
A "neighborhood assistant" (N.A.), an
Oakes undergraduate, lives in residence in
one of the apartment units in each neighborhood. In exchange for room rent, the
N.A.s plan and coordinate neighborhood
activities and are available on regular
schedules to assist student residents as
needed. There are also two preceptors,
faculty members who live at the College
and who help and advise students on both
academic and social matters.
Centrally located within the Oakes
complex is an outdoor amphitheater
seating structure, where members of the
Oakes community can hold meetings and
gather for other events and activities.
INNOVATIVE CENTER
As an adjunct to Oakes' academic
interest in the natural sciences, the tutorial
research center, scheduled to be in partial
operation next spring, includes an
innovative science laboratory, with 36
changeable stations. Disconnecting
utilities, moveable furniture modules, and
portable student lab tables enable quick
change by discipline, by class, or by
student research projects.
The academic building at Oakes is
located on a knoll above the residential
neighborhoods and is screened from them
by a tree-planted ridge, nicknamed the
"Marcellus Barrier." "Marcellus Collins,"
recalls Kahrs, "was a student on the
Programming Committee who eloquently
championed the need to provide students
with some separation of their residential
from their academic lives."
In the three-story academic building
are offices for Provost Blake and his
administrative staff, 30 faculty offices,
student mail boxes and a lobby, six
seminar-classrooms, an audio-retrieval
lab, an art class lab, space to house computer terminals, and a 114-seat lecture hall.
"The only tax monies in this $8.8
million project," Kahrs points out, "are
two federal grants, totaling roughly half
a million dollars."
Oakes College House (where Provost
Blake and his family will live and various
College functions will take place) and the
student commons/tutorial research
center were both funded from part of a
$1 million grant from The San Francisco
Foundation out of principal and interest
from the Roscoe and Margaret Oakes
Foundation.
Funding for the rest of the College
comes from education, registration, and
facilities fees paid by students, loans
from the UC Regents to be repaid from
student housing fees, and $85,500 from
UC plant pool earnings and parking
reserves.
Oakes was built by Williams & Burrows, Inc. of Belmont and Reese
Construction Co. of Santa Cruz. According to architect Chuck Kahrs, local Santa
Cruzans make up about 95% of the
several hundred craftsmen who have
worked on Oakes since ground was first
broken in December 1974.

the ucsc review
November 1976
IN THIS ISSUE:
What Makes Biological Clocks Tick
The Bicentennial Birds
International Roster of Talks
Break from Traditional
Housing Seen at Oakes
For the first time since Oakes College
opened in temporary facilities four
years ago, its faculty, students, and
staff have a home to call their own this
fall—an $8.8 million complex designed
by McCue Boone Tomsick.
The San Francisco architects worked
out preliminary ideas for the College with
a faculty-student Programming Committee
in the spring of 1970. The result is an
innovative academic-residential facility
that is already being hailed as "the trend
of the future."
"We were particularly fortunate in
being able to draw on the experiences of
UCSC's six colleges already built to help
us achieve our objectives in innovative
ways," says Provost J. Herman Blake.
"Strongly-expressed student preferences
for community and self-sufficiency and
Oakes' liberal arts program (combined
with its particular academic interests in
cultural pluralism in America and in the
natural sciences) were principal factors
involved in the design process."
Handsomely sheathed in fire-resistant
cedar shake shingles—enough to cover two
and one-half football fields—Oakes is
located on the west side of the campus on
an oak-studded site with a spectacular
view of Monterey Bay.
The complex has four major components. Two of them, the academic building
and the residential "neighborhoods," are
now in use; the other two, a student commons/tutorial-research center and Oakes
College House are scheduled for completion next year.
APARTMENT LIVING
A major feature of the College is its
break from traditional student housing.
Gone is the dorm room with bath down
the hall and a central dining facility. At
Oakes, students live in apartments and do
their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning.
About half of Oakes' 650 students will
live in the College's 65 apartments. Each
unit accommodates five students. Floor
plans include a living room with dining
room extension, a kitchen, two baths, and
either three single and one double or two
double and one single bedrooms.
The apartments are carpeted and furnished with beds, desks, chairs, tables,
lamps, a refrigerator, a stove, and
draperies. Students provide their own
linens, dishes, cooking utensils, and tableware. Room fees are $965 per year per
student, approximately $110 per month.
"As with any new housing, there are
bugs to be worked out," says Doug
Treado, Oakes' housing and student activities coordinator, "but the apartments
seem to be extremely well received by
students. Residents particularly appreciate
how well sound-proofed the units are,"
he says.
"The apartments are really quiet,"
confirms Oakes freshman Anna Kertulla,
a biology major from Alaska. "With the
door to my room closed, I don't hear a
sound from any other part of the
apartment."
According to UCSC Project Architect
Chuck Kahrs, sound-proofing was a major
structural concern in the design and
construction of Oakes.
---
[Photographs] Above, a residential "neighborhood" is seen in the two-story
and three-story units connected
by open stairways and walkways; the sundeck is the roof
of a laundry service module.
Above right, a student studies
in the living room of her
furnished apartment-with-a-
view (Photo by Peter Xiques). College Provost J. Herman
Blake, shown at right, lectures
in his class, "Introduction to
Sociology," in Oakes' 114-seat
lecture hall.
---
In another aspect of life in the Oakes
neighborhood, Treado is working with
student committees to organize a College
garden project and form an Oakes food
co-op for bulk purchase of staples. The
co-op is scheduled to be in operation in
early October.
Both proposals will undoubtedly be
met with enthusiasm by residents such as
freshman Dave Metzger, from Thousand
Oaks. "One of my roommates is a vegetarian, another opts for organic foods,
and the rest of us eat almost anything, so
we each end up making frequent, time-
consuming trips to town to buy our own
food," he says.
All kitchen refuse from the apartments
is re-cycled, according to Treado. Bottles
and tin cans go to local re-cycling centers.
Bio-degradable garbage is relegated to
compost heaps at the UCSC Farm and
Garden Project.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCEPT
Stemming from recommendations of
the faculty-student Programming Committee, architects McCue Boone Tomsick
developed the residential units into a
neighborhood concept within the College
community. There are twelve "neighborhoods," each composed of five apartments in two- and three-story units,
with open stairways and walkways to
promote recognition and communication
among residents. Several neighborhoods
are organized around a common, one-
story service module, which includes
coin-operated laundromats and dryers,
with a sun deck roof.
A continuous redwood bench, running
alongside a winding path, connects the
apartment units to one another, furthering the neighborhood concept.
A "neighborhood assistant" (N.A.), an
Oakes undergraduate, lives in residence in
one of the apartment units in each neighborhood. In exchange for room rent, the
N.A.s plan and coordinate neighborhood
activities and are available on regular
schedules to assist student residents as
needed. There are also two preceptors,
faculty members who live at the College
and who help and advise students on both
academic and social matters.
Centrally located within the Oakes
complex is an outdoor amphitheater
seating structure, where members of the
Oakes community can hold meetings and
gather for other events and activities.
INNOVATIVE CENTER
As an adjunct to Oakes' academic
interest in the natural sciences, the tutorial
research center, scheduled to be in partial
operation next spring, includes an
innovative science laboratory, with 36
changeable stations. Disconnecting
utilities, moveable furniture modules, and
portable student lab tables enable quick
change by discipline, by class, or by
student research projects.
The academic building at Oakes is
located on a knoll above the residential
neighborhoods and is screened from them
by a tree-planted ridge, nicknamed the
"Marcellus Barrier." "Marcellus Collins,"
recalls Kahrs, "was a student on the
Programming Committee who eloquently
championed the need to provide students
with some separation of their residential
from their academic lives."
In the three-story academic building
are offices for Provost Blake and his
administrative staff, 30 faculty offices,
student mail boxes and a lobby, six
seminar-classrooms, an audio-retrieval
lab, an art class lab, space to house computer terminals, and a 114-seat lecture hall.
"The only tax monies in this $8.8
million project," Kahrs points out, "are
two federal grants, totaling roughly half
a million dollars."
Oakes College House (where Provost
Blake and his family will live and various
College functions will take place) and the
student commons/tutorial research
center were both funded from part of a
$1 million grant from The San Francisco
Foundation out of principal and interest
from the Roscoe and Margaret Oakes
Foundation.
Funding for the rest of the College
comes from education, registration, and
facilities fees paid by students, loans
from the UC Regents to be repaid from
student housing fees, and $85,500 from
UC plant pool earnings and parking
reserves.
Oakes was built by Williams & Burrows, Inc. of Belmont and Reese
Construction Co. of Santa Cruz. According to architect Chuck Kahrs, local Santa
Cruzans make up about 95% of the
several hundred craftsmen who have
worked on Oakes since ground was first
broken in December 1974.